Recreational equipment, more particularly skis and bicycles, are often transported by the family motor vehicle. If the skier owns, rather than rents, skis, they must be routinely transported from the home to the ski slope. With the recent growth and development of recreational biking, bicycle riding is not only a means for traveling to a destination, but a recreational goal in itself. Indeed, active bicyclists often transport their bicycles to areas of interest, sometimes hundreds of miles from home, where novel scenery may be enjoyed without the need for long distance bicycling. The frequent bicyclist finds a routine need for convenient bicycle transport in the family vehicle to bike trails and bike sporting events. Only the largest trucks or cars can conveniently accommodate a bicycle or skis in the passenger compartment or trunk, and even then space for luggage and passengers is compromised. To address the need for convenient exterior transport, carrier racks have been developed.
Carrier racks are typically mounted either to the roof of a vehicle or over the trunk. A third option is a carrier mounted to a trailer hitch.
One type of conventional bike carrier employs an L-shaped tube or bracket mounted off the rear trailer hitch of a vehicle. The long leg of the L extends upwardly from the hitch and the short leg extends rearwardly of the hitch. One or more bike supporting brackets are generally mounted rigidly to the short leg of the tubular support. The bike mounting brackets extend substantially parallel to the ground and are typically in the form of a shallow trough or channel which is welded to the short leg of the tubular bracket.
Hitch mounted bike support brackets present a number of design challenges. The long leg of the L-shaped bracket is necessary to elevate the bike above the surface of the road. However, the long leg, in combination with the weight of the bike supported on the short leg can act as a lever arm resulting in high local stresses where the L-shaped bracket joins the trailer hitch. The lever arm effect of the long leg limits the number of bikes which can be carried because of the necessity of limiting the mechanical advantage caused by the rearward extension of the short leg to carry more bikes.
The second problem can be increased cost because of the complexity of the mechanical joint between the L-shaped tubular bracket and the trailer hitch necessitated by the high loads concentrated at the bracket/hitch interface.
What is needed is a vehicle carrier bracket which is adaptable to hold bicycles or skis, and can adjust the orientation of the bicycles or skis with respect to the carrier.